The Icon of Americana

Sure I wave the American flag. Do you know a better flag to wave?

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It’s the 4th of July, and I’m thinking about icons and Americana, which, I suppose, is fitting. For this year, we are quickly approaching the 250th year of our wonderful country. That’s quite a long time to be around — a quarter of a millennia — and so it’s far to ask two questions: what have we left behind? And how has it changed?

Icons, in the religious sense, are images that depict exceptionally holy people or moments. They’re memorialized in a specific way with a specific intent behind them. Every brush stroke is pointed towards accomplishing a specific goal. St. John of Damascus says, “The archetype is that which is represented in the image, from which the copy is made.”¹ Icons are images that serve as conduits to point us something great. They are a scared art form, and I wonder, what are America’s icons?

Now America, while not a religion (most of the time), does have a certain ethos, a spirit, some sense of, to steal from good ol’ Tom Wolfe, righteous stuff. There’s a quality to Americans and America that is hard to put into words, but when you see it in real life, or painted, or drawn, you know it right away. It’s what’s called Americana. It’s made me wonder, which piece of Americana best serves as an icon for America. Which image best sums up the nation? This is an open question.

Share your choice and send me a short note saying why you choose it.

1. On the Orthodox Faith, St. John of Damascus